Hoists are known for lifting loads such as persons, medical or other equipment, and goods which may require lifting and/or transporting. Such loads may require horizontal balancing during lifting or transportation, for example due to their delicate nature, or specific orientation requirements.
Commonly used hoists for lifting a patient from a patient surface include ceiling lifts and sling lifts. These hoists present a large portion of the patient handling in health care and when combined with the right working technique can reduce musculoskeletal disorders among health staff and contribute to a dignified handling of patients.
Ceiling lifts typically comprise a lifting strap for attachment to a stretcher, for lifting patients in a predominantly extended horizontal style, or a sling, for lifting patients in a predominantly seated style. However, seated style lifting is not always appropriate; the condition of some patients may mean that they require horizontal lifting. In order to perform a safe and comfortable horizontal lift, the stretcher must be substantially horizontally balanced. In order to achieve horizontal balancing the patient should be located with their centre of gravity coincident with the axis of the lifting strap. If this is not the case a counterforce must be applied to bring the patient into a horizontal position during the lift.
One way of horizontally balancing a patient lifted by a ceiling lift is to use a stretcher apparatus with an adjustable lifting strap attachment point. The lifting strap attachment point can only be adjusted when the stretcher is unloaded. With such an apparatus a patient is first arranged in the stretcher apparatus, whilst supported by a patient surface. The lifting strap of the ceiling hoist is then shortened to lift the patient in the stretcher apparatus very slightly off the patient surface. The user of the hoist can determine from this action whether or not the stretcher is horizontally balanced. If it isn't, the lifting strap is lengthened, and the patient is thus lowered back onto the patient surface. To adjust the orientation of the stretcher relative to the horizontal the lifting strap adjustment point is adjusted. The lifting strap of the ceiling hoist is then shortened again to lift the patient very slightly off the patient surface, such that the user can determine whether or not the stretcher is horizontally balanced yet. Depending on the experience of the heath staff, this process may need to be repeated a number of times before the stretcher is horizontally balanced.
A general problem with existing apparatus used to lift a patient an extended horizontal lift is that it cannot be adjusted whilst loaded. Additionally, the stretcher apparatus can be heavy and bulky due to the integrated lift strap adjustment mechanism. When a different sized stretcher frame is required, for example, the whole stretcher apparatus including the lift strap adjustment mechanism must be replaced. Horizontal lifting using known equipment can thus be time-consuming and physically challenging.